At September’s club fair, the trifold of a new club was quickly pulling in visitors and picking up sign-ups. Now, with

41 members, the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Club is a cultural celebration for all East students, led by president Evie Emgushov, vice president Ellen Lee, and secretary Mia Kim.

“We want to spread awareness,” Mia said. “Anyone from school can join.”

The idea of the club started last school year. “We saw at the club fair that there was a Jewish Culture Club,” Evie said. With inspiration from other cultural clubs, Evie and Ellen started the project over the summer in time for this school year.

“We want to provide a community for students at East,” Ellen said.

“There’s not a lot of Asians,” Mia added. “So, this is a way for us to conglomerate in a little meeting and make friends that we might not have seen before.”

AAPI Club meetings are biweekly on Fridays and last until 3:30 in the orchestra room (B106). In some club meetings, members learn about a particular culture and participate in fun cultural activities. Other past meetings have included origami, a potluck, and movies. At the potluck meeting in November, members brought in food of all kinds and enjoyed snacks while watching Howl’s Moving Castle.

As the club’s leaders put it, some highlights of running AAPI Club include “meeting the kids from all grades” and, of course, “the food,” such as pineapple buns, lumpia, and spicy rice cakes.

While AAPI Club has already drawn a sizeable crowd, the leaders want to emphasize that the club is for everyone. “Just because the title is AAPI Club, people are hesitant to join, but we want to spread awareness in general,” Mia said.

The next meeting on January 26 will feature a Lunar New Year celebration. Other potential meeting ideas include karaoke and spicy ramen. If you are interested in joining the club, email any of the leaders to be notified about future meetings!

Evie Emgushov – [email protected]

Ellen Lee – [email protected]

Mia Kim – [email protected]